Beverly Hills was founded in 1906. (See Beverly Drive for the story behind the name.) Ten years later, it was such a fashionable address that realtors across the Southland wanted to co-opt “Beverly” in order to raise their clients’ property values. And so the City of Los Angeles agreed to combine sections of 1st and Temple (which by then had stretched out west of Van Ness), christen this Frankenstreet “Beverly Boulevard”, and take it all the way out to the ocean. This required so much work and red tape that the boulevard didn’t properly open until 1921. Now you might be thinking, “But Beverly Blvd. doesn’t reach the ocean. It stops at Santa Monica Blvd. in Beverly Hills.” In fact up until early 1934, the long and winding bit of Sunset Blvd. between Benedict Canyon and the coast was indeed named “Beverly Boulevard”. But since it didn’t connect to the rest of Beverly Blvd., and it definitely did connect to the rest of Sunset Blvd., L.A. city councilman Stephen W. Cunningham said, “Let’s just change that bit to Sunset and be done with it.” Only one person protested.
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